by Melissa Rake
4/99
During the past decade, a growing initiative has transformed the way many Ohio University faculty, staff and students view their garbage, making them as conscious about sorting recyclables as separating lights from darks in their laundry.
The message to recycle is everywhere: Nearly 15,000 beige plastic recycling bins dot campus offices, residential rooms and hallways. Signs with bold green letters remind passersby that there's a proper place for pop cans and paper. For the most part, recycling is routine at Ohio University, which is one reason the campus is being recognized this month for its environmentally friendly efforts by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
"The commitment to recycling on this campus is extraordinary," said Sherwood Wilson, director of Facilities Management. "I'm glad there's some recognition that recycling isn't just a fad or a local phenomenon. This turns the spotlight on Ohio University to say that we are an environmentally conscious university."
On April 8, the staff of Ohio University's Recycling and Refuse Office will receive the 1998 "Take Pride, Ohio!" award for creating the best recycling program in the government institution category from the ODNR's Division of Recycling and Litter Prevention.
"We think that Ohio University's program is well-balanced," said Sondra Yates, special events coordinator for the ODNR division. "There is a lot of awareness in the program to get the word out about recycling. This award gives recognition to those whom we believe are going beyond the norm when it comes to helping the environment."
Statistics tell the story of the program's success on the Athens campus: Recycled material from campus has gone from virtually nil before 1990 to more than 1,000 tons a year today. That's thousands of truck-loads of pop cans, paper, scrap metal, tires, food packaging, carpet, compost, motor oil, even homecoming floats. It represents nearly 50 percent of the waste produced on campus, said Recycling Manager Ed Newman. The goal, however, is to recycle 80 percent of the campus' waste, he said.
"While we're doing well relative to a lot of other schools and communities, we still have a long way to go in educating everyone about the importance of recycling," he said.
Newman was hired in 1990 to develop a recycling program at Ohio University. With a staff of several students, he immediately began mapping recycling routes across campus, placing thousands of recycling bins in residential rooms and offices, and developing a strategy to communicate the recycling effort to students, faculty and staff. The campus recycling center is located behind the Central Classroom Building.
To make the university effort more comprehensive and decrease trash costs, university administrators soon decided to work with Athens' recycling program. The affiliation eventually grew into a university, city and county collaboration, a public utility of sorts known as the Athens-Hocking Waste District. Recycled material is taken to the Athens County Recycling Center off Ohio 13 in Chauncey and to several local nonprofit organizations. Newman now operates the campus program with the help of a full-time assistant, Henry Woods, and six part-time students as well as student and community volunteers.
While seeing a dramatic increase in the amount of waste recycled in the past decade, university officials have watched the campus' overall trash bill decline. Recycling is less expensive than dumping trash into a landfill, Newman said. Since 1990, Ohio University's waste removal costs have dropped by 15 percent from $252,000 a year to $218,000.
Ohio University President Robert Glidden is proud of the recycling program's success for both environmental and cost-saving reasons.
"I have been impressed by Ohio University's recycling program, and my observation is that it is continually improving," he said. "Our success is the result of good leadership, good and consistent follow-through and good cooperation from a lot of people on our campus who care about environmental issues. And it's wonderful to have this program as a way of teaching our students a recycling way of life."
Awareness about recycling has grown each year across campus as faculty, students and staff, including the custodians who faithfully empty the recycling bins, continue to support the program.
"There are a lot of people who believe in this like I do," said Newman, a 41-year-old self-described "trash man." "We live in a society that never really has pooled its ability to use resources efficiently, so there's a humongous amount of waste. It's hard for me to reckon with that. I see it every day."
Ted Bernard, professor of geography and assistant dean in the University College, is a strong supporter of Newman's efforts. In fact, Bernard backed recycling long before it became a formal practice on campus.
"Years before the recycling program began, the Geography Department had begun recycling paper and cardboard and other materials, " Bernard said. "We thought recycling was so important that we would take students on field trips to the landfill to show them how awful it was that all those resources were being put under the ground."
The recycling program continues to expand as Newman plans new projects, such as an effort to recycle materials left over from campus construction and demolition projects, including carpet, scrap metal, cardboard, drywall, ceiling tile and scrap wood. He also wants to increase the amount of recycled products purchased by the university and improve recycling efforts at the end of the school year when students move out of residence halls and apartments.
Newman plans to highlight the university's recycling efforts and celebrate the "Take Pride, Ohio!" award near Earth Day, which is April 22. Plans will be announced later this month.
"It validates what we're doing," he said. "We're setting the pace for other communities and schools to follow. The award is something special."
And, it's one piece of paper he won't trash.